During the 2024 presidential campaign, some Delaware Valley voters who displayed Trump signs in their yards received threatening letters warning them not to vote for the GOP nominee in November.
Local law enforcement in communities like Lower Merion and Tredyffrin Township appeared to do little to investigate the attempt at voter intimidation. As a result, a nonprofit group advocating secure elections filed a lawsuit asking for subpoena power to help uncover the identities of individuals who sent these letters.
U.S. District Court Judge Mia Perez granted their request last Thursday.
“This ruling enables us to try to get to the bottom of who made the threats,” said J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF). “We now have subpoena power to ask the agencies who should have done something and what, if anything, they have done.”
The graphic and threatening letters were sent anonymously to local voters and contained an ominous message.
“We know where you live. You are in the database. In the dead of a cold winter’s night, this year or next and beyond, there is no knowing what may happen. Your property, your family may be impacted, your cat may get shot. And more.”
The letters came “a few short months after a sniper lay in wait and shot a Trump supporter dead in front of his family in Pennsylvania and mere weeks following a second assassination attempt in Florida,” PILF noted in its request for the subpoenas.
It appears authorities did very little to investigate who sent the threatening letters at the time, including local police and the U.S. Postal Inspector. The plaintiffs never received any follow-up information from the Lower Merion or Tredyffrin police departments. They also informed the U.S. Postal Inspector.
“The court’s order recognizes what’s at stake not just for our clients, but for voters everywhere. When voters get death threats, there must be a response by civil society that this is unacceptable behavior,” Adams said.
Under the judge’s ruling, PILF can issue subpoenas on the following entities and individuals:
1) Lower Merion Police Department
2) Police officer Casey Healy
3) United States Postal Inspection Service
4) U.S. Postal Inspector Brian Bennett
5) U.S. Postal Inspector George P. Clark
6) Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, Custodian of Records
PILF is also offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to the identification of the individual who sent death threats to the Trump voters.
“With the court’s order in hand, we can now begin uncovering who sent these vile threats. Intimidating voters isn’t just disgusting, it’s criminal,” said PILF lawyer Linda Kerns.
